MONTREAL—Residents in the south shore town of St-Mathieu are very angry at Transport Quebec.
For the past year, the Montee Monette overpass that links the community of 1,800 has been closed for construction. With the town bifurcated by the 15 Highway, the overpass has been silent—work was suspended soon after it started.
Lise Poissant, the mayor of St-Mathieu, was with 200 protesters on Sunday as they marched around the idled structure, demanding action.
“We want something to be done for all our residents who have had to waste gas and time over the past year due to the closure,” said Poissant. “At one point we were asked to make a 42-kilometre detour, that’s unacceptable.”
With traffic routed through Candiac to the north or Montee St-Jacques to the south, businesses told CTV Montreal that the detour has cost them as much as 30 per cent of their sales.
Watched by police on Sunday, residents charged Transport Quebec with playing games and put a large inflatable construction vehicle on top of the structure.
